Criticism - Tim Cumper

Tim Cumper - SEO

I am certain that there are many who will criticise, what they will describe as a shameless exposure - and indeed many who will exaggerate this to the point of referring only to the exposure of the girl, in their condemnation of my actions - no doubt in an effort to skew the bias and collect the undeserved votes and support of sympathy.

So let us set the scene & examine what alternatives appeared to be available, at that critical time - during the white heat of confusion and ambiguity - a fire that was lit by a telephone call - from the Philippines.

A time when my passion, my devotion to the relationship and our plans for its future was strongest.
I was about to make my second trip to visit her and establish a more concrete platform of arrangements - convinced, as I was after the first visit only just over a month before, that destiny was being so sweet.

It was that telephone call - which imparted the news of "the ectopic pregnancy" - that brought an intense awareness of my predicament.

I had, naively and unwittingly on my first visit, left myself exposed to a potential scam attempt.
This was starkly obvious and could not be ignored.

Concern over this was supported, in retrospect, by certain events during my first visit and by the requests for money prior to the phonecall.

It was immediately obvious that if my suspicions were correct, there were certainly more people involved in this than merely the girl.

In the initial shock and confusion of the time immediately surrounding the “news” from Mayen – and through my assessment of the risks involved to each of us – I made a decision.
A decision which had very little time to be made.

Despite many calls to Embassies and Foreign Offices, and despite their fully sympathetic views of those risks – the ultimate decision was down to myself.

The reason that logic was used in this decision should be perfectly obvious to anyone who understands how emotions are key to the success of any scam.

So – even though love and desire are still present and strong – they must be ignored.

The decision was made in accordance with the following logic.

If this is all about love, and Mayen is telling the truth – then it will all resolve quickly – I shall apologise for my suspicions, pay the hospital bill and fly out there ASAP.
Mayen is in the best place possible for her care – a hospital – my moral support is the least of her worries.
All of my cautious behaviour will hopefully be thoroughly understood and we shall proceed with our plans.
The risk is all mine – and is the risk of trashing the relationship.

If this is not about love – & Mayen is fabricating the story – my moral support is the least of her worries.
There is a strong risk of becoming embroiled in something undesirable, possible coercion.
There is the risk of wasting more time and money under false pretenses.

That was the dilemma – the double-edged sword of what that love represented.
It was either the honey in a trap – or the delicious nectar of genuine love.
I was to judge it wrong at my own peril – either way.

All the risks were mine.

Considering that – it was entirely my right to make that decision.

Considering also that the responsibility for the alleged pregnancy was a shared one – and considering that the burden of proof to demonstrate the truth of that pregnancy and any complications arising from it – resided 6,000 miles away – along with the original suggestion of that pregnancy – it was entirely my right to base my decision on an evaluation of proof.

It was also entirely my right to expect and require that proof.

Before my second flight - absolutely nothing which bore any resemblance to official proof had arrived in the UK.

At this point - only a fool would have proceeded with the trip - concurring with all advice I was being given at that time.

After all, the "emergency" was already over - it should have been quite apparent to all concerned - that the stance I had adopted was well within the grounds of reason and common sense.
In order for that to have happened amongst all concerned however - it was necessary to have had a rounded appreciation of the fact that scams do happen - especially involving hospital fees - and particularly from the Philippines.
From the people I was dealing with (& many more - who have since decided to pretend and defend the innocence of these people) - I have never seen anything approaching a rounded understanding - only denial and defensiveness.

The response as received led me to be even more convinced that my suspicions were true.
I was now faced with a situation in which I could no longer expect to find honest answers from anyone directly implicated in what was appearing more and more like an attempted and organised scam.
The resources available to this group of people, and the determination to demonstrate their innocence, quite possibly meant that any investigation "on the ground" would not get anywhere near to the actual truth - and would be faced with a paper trail of manufactured evidence - and possibly face attempts of bribery to ensure compliance.
After all - when the complainant is 6,000 miles away - and everything is being relayed by information - how can information itself ever be regarded as absolute proof.
Much would depend on its perception - and upon the acceptance of certain trusts - which in this particular set of circumstances - were very hard to evaluate.
No response arrived from any of my pleas for help sent to official bodies in the Philippines - so I was left to deal with things entirely on my own.

Everything was being propelled along by that original confusion - the original horror of the situation - the torturous ambivalence and complete uncertainty - all wrapped in a deep attachment and love for the girl concerned.
My strongest need was to arrive at the truth - the unequivocal truth.
Something that would certainly not happen if I abandoned it all - shrugged my shoulders and wrote it all off as simply a bad mistake.
No - my conscience, my concern & love would not allow for that.
The only way - which was to become even more emotionally torturous - was to keep lines of communication open - to let it play itself out - and to constantly check that the goal of truth was not being hijacked by an imposter - such as bias or wishful thinking.
There were human beings involved in this - at both ends - only the truth had suitable worthiness as a goal.

That is what followed.
Myself - alone - facing the determined resolve and resources of the real estate company to prove its innocence by any means possible.
They were aware that the whole detailed story lay waiting - for potential public release - on my blog at MySpace.
This was the big threat - which was my only form of leverage to ensure continued communication.
I had not quite understood how ruthless and determined the people I was dealing with would turn out to be.

It was this ruthlessness and complete disregard for myself, or indeed a respectable concern for the truth, contrasted and intertwined with the emotionally manipulative power of the "relationship" - that gave me the resolve to eventually make the blog public - after I had examined the video of the scar revelation.
So much had already happened in the seven weeks leading up to this point - I was determined to expose what was most certainly an organised attempt at extortion - and in impenetrable barricade of denial and defensiveness from all quarters. The combined effect of which was to leave me quite disbelieving and shocked - but probably more due to my naivety than anything else - I had little realised that I would remain alone during such a protracted escalation.

Quite often I refer to this as an adventure - casually - and it still is.

Now it is simply a battle of medium versus message - those with the network, the contacts, the pliable support - the platform to virally hasten the spread of their propaganda - think to themselves, behind their mask of feeble excuses, lies and self-defenses - in the camaraderie of their campaign - in the disgusting contempt of their deceit - in the complete apathy and abandon to their own corrupt ethics - in their sullen and stubborn denial of their own consciences - blatantly in abuse of any tenets of human decency - they think that they have the upper hand.
The hand of cheating and subterfuge - of distortion, gross exaggeration and false accusation - of the underhand, the immoral - everything that is low - unchecked defamation - pure vitriolic ad hominem based entirely on presumption and pretence - this is the hand that they are playing from - these are the cards they hold and use without restraint - for they have no decency to restrain themselves with.
With these cards now on the table - we are supposed to believe that their truth is worth having?

They, who have stained themselves to the soul.
We know who they are - the main players - those who have raised the rallying flag of incitement and hatred - hiding away in their little hive - a swarm - a plague on the Internet.
See them all - a devil's coven at play - here in their pathetic hideaway.
Anyone who has contributed in the smallest way there - has been corrupted beyond salvation.

Let them dare to come anywhere near a law that is worthy of its name - of a legal system that is truly honourable - instead of hiding behind the letter of the law - and usurping its majesty and authority with threat - let them face the true might of its justice.

Let them dare - just let them dare . . .

Behaviour Analysis - Tim Cumper

A & B are the two opposing streams of ambiguity.
The events as portrayed in the information I received, versus the reasons for suspicion.
The totally unsubstantiated information & events reported in my story have no bias - towards A or B - that weight is only added by predisposition - both streams naturally having a cancelling effect on each other.
An unbiased opinion, based entirely on reading my story would therefore be one of neutrality - one which would quite readily recognise that perfect ambiguity.

This was the position that strangely, I found myself to be in.
Streams A & B represented the opposite forces of emotion and caution.
Caution would instruct the ego to step aside from emotional bias - from wishful thinking - from giving the benefit of the doubt.
Emotion would instruct the ego that no matter what caution said, it desired the supreme satisfaction of allowing the dream lover, the dream scenario - to be real.
A struggle - played out entirely on the internal stage of my being - but the result was neutrality - I could see the potential for each stream being the reality, under its own set of circumstances.

It must be stated that out of the many thousands of people who have come in contact with this story since it was posted publicly online - only a tiny fraction have been responsible for generating the hostile propaganda - demonstratively proclaiming it is a hoax.
Through the exploration of social networking - it is possible to trace how these people are virtually or really connected with each other - either by family, business or social environments.

The other common denominator is that they all speak the same language, literally and metaphorically - for they all use exactly the same method of argument.
Upon analysis, it can be seen that this method is one which seeks to disturb the neutrality of my position - by reinforcing the emotional longing and entirely negating the voice of caution.
This is achieved by adding weight to one stream and denying it to the other - hovering in the soft glow of romantic terminology, the vaguely poetic - constantly reminding of the relationship that was lost, of the beautiful, sexy young Filipina, who had such a genuine love for me, and by an insistence that the pregnancy must have been real.
It is achieved by burying details in the dense clouds of cultural differences, by ignoring them completely or by not addressing any of my suspicions directly and in an unbiased way.
It is achieved by courtesy of the anonymity of the Internet, fired by contempt and incitement - fuelled by gross hypocrisy and double standards - and a conspiracy of silence - denying me the right to reply, refusing to answer emails, invitations to discussion groups, strategically blocking or banning my IP address from commenting or accessing websites.

It is starkly obvious to see how far away from neutrality these people are.

Double standards are revealed - for example, if we consider the phrase "seeing is believing."

They would have me believe that every word of every SMS message, email or webchat - every email containing figures, every jpg of a hospital bill, every letter from a lawyer or embassy - were the gospel truth - when in fact every single one of those items - produced as "proof positive" - only arrived at all due to my continual insistence.

Remember also, that these people are only readers of my story - they claim not to have any other links or inside information - and they certainly have not accrued the slightest piece of information for themselves to back up anything they say.

Seeing is believing for them - not ever remotely entertaining even a possibility that any one or all these things could be falsified, forged or faked - so - seeing is believing, for them - until it comes to the subject of the webcam transmission of Mayen showing me "her scar from the operation."

Considering the pressure that was mounting - the urgency for the real estate business to get my blog removed - certainly all the above things are highly possible.
Someone - remember - hacked and deleted my blog - one hour after I had written up about the "scar revelation" and finally made the blog public.

Believing, though, is much more accountable to perception than eyesight - and perception is conditioned by predisposition - by pre-conception in fact - and by bias & wishful thinking.

Proof of authenticity can never be established by an object in isolation - not a physical object, even less so - a virtual object - transmitted over the Internet.

Its trusted provenance needs to be known.
Its authenticity, its veracity can only be established & verified in its real context - which comes from an intimate familiarity with the actual flow of events - at a first hand level of experience - not by hear-say, rumour, generalisation or presumption - it is not proved by precedents or by their absence - but by the specific details leading to this object's arrival - none of which are available to any of the players now on the field.

Impossible to do over the Internet - but, all things therefore being equal - the Internet is not only the playing field now, but the milieu in which this whole saga unfolded.

Perhaps this is what was hinted at by "The Legal Counsel" when he wrote "This writer is a lawyer and, by the culture in his milieu, encourages those who have been wronged to air their grievances before appropriate fora . . ."
It has its own justice - perhaps - and is a struggle of medium versus message.

So - as far as all the readers of my story - and myself - are concerned, we are therefore on precisely even footing - apart from our predispositions, apart from our presumptions and our biases.

Biases energise, they realise action - and become the motivation.

The reason for my obsessive attention to detail, throughout this story - my meticulous thoroughness over dates and times etc. - is because I do not wish to cheat myself out of the truth.

I have a deep and emotional need to know that truth - that has been and always will be my motivation.
It is a need that cannot allow itself to be motivated by preconception - it is neutral - weighing every possibility equally.

What is the motivation for all those actively engaged in staining my story as a hoax?
Remember it is only a tiny minority - but it is an energetic and a determined minority.
What is their motivation?

We can safely ignore any of the "physical evidence" - the seeing is believing - because one stream of possibility suggests it is highly plausible that what we are seeing could have been artificially generated.

If there were no dilemma, no ambiguity about the truth, everything would have been entirely different.
There was, however that obvious and golden opportunity for a scam - that I had set myself up for - hence the dilemma.
It is so obvious - that it demands being considered in balance with the alternative, opposite scenario - the other stream.
How can something so obvious be so consistently and stubbornly denied?

What we cannot ignore though, are the behavioural responses - the inconsistencies, the timings - in relationship to the shifting pressures.
All these happen in a far more subliminal and unconscious way - they are perhaps harder to disguise.
The silences - the method of approach - the complete vacuum of any further details to appear in support of innocence.
The inability to use anything other than ad hominem attacks on my personality - in order to achieve their attempted aim in obliterating my story - that coupled with the exaggeration, the hyperbole utilised in trying to sustain my own inner emotional imbalance.

For a perfect example of this - just look at the video interview that Noemi Dado conducted with Mayen - soak up the overall style, see just where the accent is - and know exactly what it was they were trying to achieve.

What we cannot ignore either - is the damning evidence provided by the video revelation of the scar - secretly recorded by me at the time of transmission.

So - is it true - that seeing is believing - or not?

Ok - a big ask at this point - I know - but because of the sensitivity of the video - and the intimate nature of it - & the fact that it would readily be seized, only as an opportunity to generate more propaganda - that video will probably never see the light of day as far as public consumption is concerned.
It is required however, that a firm understanding of my neutrality is grasped - to see that I do not want or need to cheat myself out of the truth.
I have little or no fear of reprisals from bloggers, thousands of miles away - in the semi-anonymous, half deserted space of the Internet - they have done all they can do - it can only be more of the same.

What I do fear - is never knowing the truth.

I know that truth now - two years after it all began - two years of hunting, sifting, deep thinking and soul searching - a determination to not give up - to not be thwarted by anger or a false pride.
All along, that one single prayer and hope - that one single aim - of finding the truth - was before me.

What happens now - is determined by how those "hoax theorists" behave.
Do they seriously think that I am making this all up?
Do they feel obliged to keep their propaganda attempts ongoing?
What is their motivation - it is not truth - they have demonstrated they do not concern themselves with truth.
Is it commercial interest?
Is it sheer contempt?



No - I am not making anything up - the evidence revealed by the video is damning - & is consistent with all my suspicions and vindicates all the effort put into arriving at this goal - of knowing the truth.

I do not need to explain all the details again - but there is no possible explanation to them being on the video - other than it being conclusive evidence of an attempted scam. Finally - we can see which stream is real.

First we have the delay and suspicious circumstances regarding the transmission time.

Second - we have marks across the scar which match exactly the corrugations of the waistband of her knickers - we can see the line being smudged by her thumb.

Third - if the avowed intent was to prove once and for all that Mayen had a genuine scar on her stomach - why was no thought given to standing still - and allowing a perfectly clear, close up picture to convince me? It was pure serendipity that gave us the clear close ups at those critical moments.

Fourth - how can anyone explain the appearance of the remains of a previous attempt at a scar, drawn on to Mayen's stomach - which was obviously hastily, but not thoroughly wiped off, before the second attempt was drawn on, in a different position?

It is those revelations which add weight - beyond any ambiguity - they can polarise with only one stream - they are the only thing which speak for themselves without requiring any predisposition or bias - they are self-evident.

A small, fragile detail, lasting only a split-second - but a detail of enormous significance.

A significance which gains its potency, not from the detail itself, but by the sheer coincidence of it appearing ambiguously genuine - in the wake of all the other anomalous happenings.

A video, in itself, can neither prove something to be genuine nor ingenuine - it is merely a token.

Its significance is derived from the merest hint, that its true provenance may be different.

Brains on! - Consider the implications.

* Why show a fake scar? - Because there was no real scar.

* Therefore there was NO OPERATION, NO ECTOPIC PREGNANCY.

* The whole thing was A LIE - an extortionate lie.

* Therefore when Mr Francis M Jalbuena, of Tierra Maria Estates - communicated with me - telling me that he had paid a deposit - he was CORROBORATING this lie.

* The hospital, who fielded my telephone calls on DAY 1 - were also a part of this EXTORTIONATE LIE.

* Mayen's co-workers, who acted as go-betweens while Mayen was supposed to be in hospital - also CORROBORATED THIS LIE.

* The doctors, whose names I have been given - are either accomplices - or perhaps their names have been used without their knowledge.
Which is it?
If they remain forever silent - what can we presume?

* Whoever wrote the letter, allegedly from the lawyer Efren C Carag - corroborated this extortionate lie on behalf of the hospital.
Does this lawyer know that his name was being used?

* Someone managed to embroil the British Embassy in Manila, getting them to corroborate the EXTORTIONATE LIE.

* Someone came up with this whole scheme - involving Noemi Dado and her orchestrated SEO campaign - pronouncing my story as a hoax.

* Is this the work of a single girl, who tried to scam me out of some money?

Of course it isn't.

I've been thinking a great deal about the whole dynamic of "proof" & "evidence" - especially in relation to the Internet - my conclusion is that there really is no such possibility.

Isolated items, offered or revealed as such, are meaningless on their own - detached from the provenance, the circumstances, the history surrounding their presentation.

All we can possibly see or receive are "tokens" - which are supposed to be representational, significant of an accompanying genuine provenance or circumstance - but in themselves, they are no more than tokens.

Entirely unprovable - entirely useless - without an intimate knowledge of the true provenance.

Whereas that true provenance is whole and complete, the tokens offered are miniscule. They rely totally on a presumption that the circumstances surrounding their origin are legitimate.

However, the authenticity of these tokens is not intrinsic to themselves, but only on the provenance or circumstance that they imply a representation of.

For example - a genuine hospital bill, produced using a hospital accounting system - is a legitimate bill only if the events it pertains to were themselves genuine.

In itself - it as genuine in appearance as any other bill produced on that system.

A photograph - is a genuine photograph, but might be depending on the association of photography with "seeing is believing", to force the presumption that it also represents a genuine, and not a staged, event.

Tokens like these can usurp the authority of the genuine - to assist the fake.

All these tokens do - is try to reach our understanding - they try to coax the understanding and common sense into creating an imagined provenance - in the reverse of the normal chain of events, where the provenance creates the token.

The presumption is that the token will trigger an imagination of a provenance, and become convincing that therefore the provenance must be genuine.

However - our understanding and common sense is not necessarily ever switched off - it is aware all the time.

Our understanding and common sense is not so easily fooled by patterns of behaviour.

Patterns of behaviour - the appropriateness of response - is not so easily disguised - because behaviour is always real, it is always genuine behaviour - even when it attempts to mimic appropriate behaviour - there is something about it which is not quite convincing.

Behaviour, therefore, is more likely to reveal provenance than tokens - which are notoriously ambiguous in authenticity.

Seen in this light, it is apparent that words themselves are mere tokens - tokens for events and also tokens for behaviour - excuses, reasons - yet will often reveal, even subliminally, beneath the words themselves - the current of real behaviour in which the thoughts originated.

Therefore - could it probably be safer, more secure - to ignore the absolutely ambiguous - the tokens themselves - and base detection on our understanding of behaviour?

Tim Cumper - Flag Day

It is important to remember as this list is read through, that all the events since my return to the UK - and I am dignifying them already, by calling them events - were transmitted to me via information only - the printed or spoken word.
Words, which immediately conjure up images in the mind - that is their tremendous, but exclusive power.
Words themselves have no dimensions - they are as thin as the paper that they are written upon, as ephemeral as the pixels on a screen, or the passing vibrations of the human voice.
Their only depth lies in the images that they portray.

Using only words to paint pictures in another person's mind - whether or not those words speak of the truth - the image conjured up in the receptive mind is identical in every way.
Information smuggles images into the harbour of the mind, often completely uninvited - carried below decks, in the cargo-holds of words.
Words like - love - pregnancy - hospital.
Images within the mind quite readily become elevated to truth - for once we have seen something in the mind's eye - no matter how that picture was placed there - it can seem very real - quite simply, we lend it reality - by colouring it in, by giving it dimensions - we bring it to life.
How can we deny something that we have seen now, within our own imagination?

Don't think of an elephant.

Such is the power of information.

Remember - all that I have ever received - existed only in the guise of information.
Words - images - delivered, uninvited - into my mind.
Remember that we were two people "in love" - we had already agreed that we would get married when the time was right - so add that emotional intensity to the burning imagery of the words.

You can see just how all the ingredients for a scam work together - and make it so easy to succeed.
And it hits you slap in the face - out of nowhere - you have never experienced anything like it before - you are a non-swimmer - thrown into cold, unfathomable, alien waters - in a threshing, flailing panic.
You learn very quickly - how to swim.
There is a desperation to know the truth, to breathe freely again, to reach solid ground - an urgency that results in all information being minutely examined for any possible clues.

Essentially I was faced with two simultaneous alternatives - to believe it all on face value, no questions asked, to ignore the voice of common sense and caution - and act with a blind obedience to emotional instincts that were by now running so deep.
Or - to realise also that here was a golden opportunity, the perfect scenario for a "honey pot" type scam.
The deviously tangled conundrum was however - that both alternative situations related entirely to the same love - for the same girl - a love that could not simply evaporate overnight.
The decision I would make, the conclusions I would arrive at - depended entirely on the information that I received - and how I navigated a way through the channels of ambiguity - the torturous rapids that raced through the canyon between the heart and the mind.

Yes - I had set myself up for it - in every way.
Already, ambivalence had entered the equation - the simple realisation of that perfect, golden opportunity for a scam was compelling enough to introduce caution - the water was now cloudy.
The solution now contained a tiny seed crystal of doubt - a seed that was not caused by paranoia, or any other form of mental illness - it was there because the realisation, the awareness of the possibility for a scam, was unavoidably obvious.
A small seed crystal that, unfortunately, immediately inherits a robustness - because the location of these events was the Philippines - from where (in common with some other Asian countries) a reputation for scams has grown - scams surrounding payment of hospital fees being well reported.
I am aware that scams occur universally - but reputations are not born out of fresh air.
But neither is this comment racist - it is simply stating the facts specific to this one, particular case.

Nothing will destroy this crystal seed of doubt - nothing except absolute assurance - knowledge, certainty (as opposed to information) - that the reality of the situation is actually coincident with the information that I am sent.
Any form of aberration, anything which weakens that positive assurance - will cause that crystal to grow.
At the start it was tiny - just a breath of a worry - an occasional flickering in the mind.

Let me now show you everything that has added weight to that crystal of doubt and suspicion.

All the entries up until the 1st phone call from Mayen "in hospital" are retrospective - I had not thought anything of these points at the time when they occurred. Why? Because I was intent on making the relationship work.
I could not entertain doubts - & I was blissfully happy.
But this was the watershed moment - when I seriously started to question my blind trust.


1) We meet on a dating site Date In Asia, which I have since discovered is a hot bed for scammers, being a free site. I did not appreciate this at the time - but I did sense that there was a risk - the Internet being what it is.

2) There was no picture on my profile when Mayen contacted me - within an hour of completing my profile.

3) The age range of Mayen's interest was vast.

4) Mayen's profile photograph had been edited (she told me this herself) and was considerably different from how she really looked.

5) All communication up until soon before my 1st trip was done on the DIA chat window or email - only just before my trip did we start using Yahoo Messenger - despite me having sent Mayen an invitation to add me to her contacts there during our very first night chatting. We never used a webcam.
I could quite possibly have been talking to anybody some of the time.
The photograph and my hopes, my imagination made the illusion seem real.

6) Mayen is the first to suggest that I visit her, relatively early on - and the dates suggested for a visit are quite soon.

7) Mayen was hardly forthcoming about herself - in spite of my constant requests - in stark comparison to the lengthy emails I was to receive after the "hospital" incident.

8) The trip itself turned out to be a paid junket for Mayen - to visit her family, stay in a hotel, travel by taxi, buy and be bought gifts. Depsite the fact that she was a working girl - she did not buy as much as a cup of coffee.
The episode of the sandals (which has brought so much comment) is a pertinent highlight - not because of the amount of money involved - but because it seemed to be a "testing of the water." Here was Mayen with the money I had given her, because she knew her way around, it was safer if she paid for taxis etc. Not that I minded in the slightest, but it did seem unusual for her to walk into a shoe shop, without really asking, and purchase herself a pair of new shoes.
I was more than happy to oblige - thought nothing of it at all - but it could have been a test, to see how I would react . . .

9) . . . when she told me that her sister had called her up and informed her that she (Mayen) was expected to pay for the family's festivities at the approaching Barrio Fiesta - resulting in my handing her more money, which she said would go to her father. I observed a change of attitude in Mayen - from happy-go-lucky - to detached and very business like - as if she was preparing herself for how I might react. This revealed to me subliminally that she knew exactly what she was up to. Trying it on - and succeeding, because I made no fuss - I would have felt mean to do so - clever isn't it.

10) Top of the menu meals - taxis everywhere - presents for all the family - new cellphone for Mayen - all as a matter of course.

11) Mayen suggests that we sleep together.

12) Mayen's family encourage us to sleep together.

13) Mayen discourages me from using contraception.

14) Mayen's concern over spilling her "feminine hygeine" lotion - research suggests that there is a possibilty that this type of lotion could have been to alleviate herpes symptoms.

15) Mayen's questioning - "Why" did I not have any children.

16) Mayen asking me (much earlier on during our chats) if she should send "Sexy photographs" & her little topless shimmy in the hotel room saying "You like?" - indicate that Mayen saw herself as a sex object, through my eyes - in other words - branding me the same as a sex tourist - accompanied secretly, no doubt, by the contempt that a sex tourist deserves.
In fact I recall one chat we had after the hospital incident, when I felt she was close to giving me an explanation - she admitted that she hadn't really believed that I would be coming back to her - she had presumed that I was just treating it like a holiday. Where had that come from? Mythology - or her own personal experience?
The fact that I was still married (or not yet divorced) perhaps led her to think along those lines - but I had never hidden it from her - it appeared that we understood each other implicitly on that issue - I even gave her my wedding ring when I was leaving - but perhaps it simply added to her contempt.
Well - I can state categorically - that I worshipped the ground she walked on, all the time before and during my visit - and for many months afterwards. Yes I was attracted to her - but she was so much more than a sex object - she was my dream girl - in every way.
But it seems that for some - generalisation is the rule - and a contempt deserved by a few, is shown to all.
Obviously, for the sake of a scam, a "client" who is married, perhaps being totally secretive - just out for a quick thrill - represents the ideal - as far more leverage can be brought to bear when it comes to blackmail.

17) The pantomime of catching me as a "big fish" during the picnic at the seashore. Openly demonstrating what was on her mind?

18) The first business suggestion - that I buy a plot of land for her father to administer as a coconut plantation.

19) Mayen very passive during sex - a rather business like quality. One occasion I recall her asking me "Have you finished?"
Her strange moments of hiding her face and crying - tearlessly. A completely unemotional (from her) farewell at the airport, the text message I received shortly after we parted company did not match her apparent mood.

20) 1st request for money on my return to the UK. These were not direct requests, merely indirect hints - but Mayen later admits in the interview with Noemi to having asked for money prior to the hospital episode itself - therefore demonstrating that this was her style. I sensed that Mayen knew exactly where it was going - it was so obvious that I was being squeezed - the first innocuous mention of money for the Internet (she'd managed perfectly well before my trip - what had changed?) - changing into needing the money for a health check (suspected Dengue fever was the excuse - but I think Mayen knew that this was the thin end of "the hospital" scenario. However - at this point, it might even have been a full term pregnancy, with some money making complications, no doubt, that was on the cards - because I had not announced my second trip yet.)

21) The brevity of Mayen's email announcing her suspected pregnancy - very business like - just saying what needed to be said - with of course the perfunctory "I love you, mWaaaah!"

22) Mayen's "possible pregnancy" was self-diagnosed by Mayen herself, extending many of the same symptoms referred to when Dengue Fever was used as the reason for a health check. The possible pregnancy was allegedly corroborated by Dra. Leonardo - conveniently the same woman who would feature at "the hospital." But I wasn't informed of this detail at the time - only after Mayen had "left the hospital."

23) Mayen denies having Herpes (which I now have - courtesy of her.)

24) When I announce my second trip - flight to arrive 15th August - the pregnancy disappears - false alarm.
I could have had her independently tested for verification when I arrived.
But here's that golden opportunity for a nice fat sum of money - how do they cash in on it.

Any future unprotected sexual liaisons between us is now highly unlikely, so the original pregnancy represents the single opportunity for this type of scam.

The details regarding my lack of credit card, the necessity to rely on cash, the window of opportunity for an ectopic pregnancy, my forthcoming 2nd trip - all seem to conspire together - and point, very precisely, at an ideal date - around which this event occurred.

25) I write to Mayen that I have thoroughly read the Philippine Family Code. Perhaps she's having 2nd thoughts about things.
Was marriage really a part of her plan? Or just the supreme tease - knowing how much I desired to be married to her.

26) 2nd request for money - Mayen weaves a most elaborate tale about Sir Francis insisting that all 3 girls should share the same small, hot room.
Sir Francis later denies all knowledge of this.

I send some money so that Mayen can find her own accomodation.
Mayen complains that the money I send for this was not quite enough.
Mayen further elaborates on the new accomodation, how seedy it is, near the squatters, how her work colleagues were disappointed in her choice.
On suggesting that she could get a rebate and look elsewhere - she tells me "It's not that kind of arrangement - no paperwork - the landlady is not quite legal . . ."

27) All chats with Mayen are getting longer & more and more intensely loving.

28) Conflicting reasons for visiting her sister.

29) Mayen pulls her profile from DIA the day before the "hospital call" - perhaps to ensure that I use Yahoo Messenger.

30) I receive a phone call at 6.30 am UK time (2.30pm PH time) - immediately after logging in to Yahoo Messenger - something that can be observed by anyone on my list - providing I wasn't invisible - I wasn't.
Considering that Mayen had been "in pain" since 4.00am (8.00pm the previous evening UK time) and was "taken to the hospital by Ate Glo before lunchtime" (the "operation" was 3.45pm PH time) - firstly, the time scale for this "emergency operation" seems very long & secondly, it seems a remarkable coincidence that I should receive the telephone call at precisely that moment.

31) The timing of this "hospital incident" just before my 2nd flight - just enough time to pull Mayen "out of the hospital" before I arrive - SMS from Sir Francis "Hi tim, wil b n hosptal abt 3pm to c f we can take out mayen. I hope we can talk latr wen evrythng s settld."
- leaving me with a debt to pay Sir Francis who may have settled the account (this is all hinted at in the emails & SMS messages received.) She will no doubt be tightly bandaged - who knows - even disappeared somewhere "to recover." People have been known to mysteriously "die" - to avoid discovery.

32) The first call to me was made using "Ate Glo's" cellphone. Very brief chat with Mayen & I was told to call that number back - which I try. The reception is breaking up dreadfully, but I hear Mayen say "It's not working . . ." - I call again this time Mayen's cellphone number. Reception is fine - she tells me about "suspected appendicitis" - a common mistaken diagnosis made during ruptured Ectopic Pregnancies - the call is disturbed at home. I send an SMS to Mayen saying that my wife has called the police and that they have just arrived. They had, but completely unconnected to anything directly involving Mayen, but Mayen was not told of the reason.
I phone again.
This time I call Mayen, she passes me to "Dra. Leonardo" - who very scientifically explains what an Ectopic Pregnancy is. (Trying to convince me with science, perhaps?) The Dra. does not seem at all concerned or hesitant about passing me this "confidential information."
Mayen tells me Sir Francis has paid some money - I am to phone him.
There is a distinct possibility that this is the only reason for Sir Francis's direct involvement - someone had to pay the deposit for the operation to go ahead - & it had to happen before I arrived, obviously.
I call Sir Francis in his own cellphone - he tells me Mayen has just given him her phone - he was just about to call me. She should be out of recovery soon, he tells me amongst other things we discuss.
Sir Francis sends me an SMS - with the time stamp 10th August 18:55 - which cannot possibly be correct, either UK or PH time.
The next time I telephone using the number of the hospital I had discovered online. Very quickly I am passed on to a " nurse station" and from there handed to "Chots" - Mayen's colleague - I can speak to Mayen on her cellphone - she's just handed it back to her.
Very brief chat to Mayen on her cellphone "No more babies . . . send some money . . ."
I am soon very aware that all communications are extremely conscious of the distinction between the unincriminating nature of phone calls - and the possiblity of SMS messages, emails, IM chats being documented.

Now - I would have been expected to try and verify the facts by telephoning the hospital.
The switchboard seemed to know exactly what to do - other than that, all phone calls to Mayen and Sir Francis & the Dra. were on cellphones.
OK - conveniently - the hospital may not have phones in the rooms - but that fact cannot prove that Mayen was there.
Could "Ate Glo" be Mayen's sister?
Could Dra. Leonardo have been Chots?
How do I know?
Chots might have been standing by, in the hospital - expecting me to make a call for verification as this was the first day.
How do I know where Sir Francis was when I spoke to him?

It's all so easily done. One person on a switchboard.

33) During subsequent Yahoo Messenger chats with Marivien, there is a distinct possibilty that Mayen could have been present - she seems to be answering my questions on cue.
What is the relevance of her asking me if I were at home or in an Internet cafe?

34) I am requested to send an amount via Western Union. Mayen had previously shown possible anxiety when she told me that she was friends with the money lender in BF homes - and then adding "i usually get your money their in western union that's why we are freinds - hehehe" after only the 2 occasions when I had sent money.
That is quite possible - but the anxiety is revealed by the fact that she considers it important to tell me this - and the nervous laugh - to lighten things up after a potential mistake had been made.

[That is the end of how the plan was supposed to have worked - now the complications start.]

35) Sir Francis sends an SMS - he now knows the precise amount of the bill - I have been insisting that I deal only and directly with the hospital & that I urgently needed to know the full amount due to assess the possibility of still making the trip. He offers various ways for me to settle up - including directly with the hospital if I was still flying, or via email with the hospital if I wasn't going to fly, or I could pay the full amount into his bank account. Demonstrating - above anything else that the focus is on getting the money - also perhaps he was preparing me for the "debt to Sir Francis" scenario.

36) I receive an avalanche of emotionally manipulative SMS messages from Mayen - I have not said that I am not flying - all I have insisted on is dealing with the Hospital directly. Where is the innocent, rational dialogue? Why does Mayen try so hard to twist my heart?
None of them tell me that the hospital will not deal with me because of "confidentiality issues."

37) Despite me insisting on no photocopies, no scanned images & dealing directly with the hospital (who had my email address from the 2 emails I had sent them) - I am sent an email containing the figures from the Tierra Maria Estates office. "I seem to have problem scanning the bills I got from Medical Center Paranaque but hereunder is the summary; . . ."
Mayen has told me that Marivien has a " Xerox" - the original being in accounts. "timy i ask d nurse the original copy is in d acounting. the xerox s with marivien, coz she wil email u.. is it not enough?i ask also d billing section 2 email it 2 u, but close already. maybe tomorrow iwil try"
The figure is roughly the same as quoted by Sir Francis in his SMS earlier - which should indicate that a bill has already been prepared - in fact this day is the date quoted on the JPG of the bill as Mayen's discharge date. But there seem to be some serious delays in sending the information to me. Why does Marivien have to return to Tierra Maria Estates office to send me the email?
Perhaps because now it's getting serious - the Hospital are not willing to directly & positively incriminate themselves by using their email system.

38) The email contains a warning that Mayen cannot leave until her bill is paid, also a pledge to get them to deal with me via email. No mention of "confidentiality issues" yet - "I'll do best to have the hospital email you directly the billings. Please note that if the P74,237.69 balance as of today is not settled, it will be hard to have Mayen released."
I discover later that this is still "normal" practice in private rooms - although nothing is mentioned about promissary notes - another common practice.

39) I telephone the hospital - and the bill is only verified by a nurse enquiring at the accounts office - with the same person presumably who would have just been dealing with Sir Francis & Marivien. Someone is still there - despite Mayen telling me that the billing department is now closed.

40) Marivien has asked for my flight details in a chat - although Mayen already has them from a previous email & Marivien is now using Mayen's account "Mayen ask when is your flight from UK? What is the exact time arrival her in philippines so that she get taxi for you & i be the one wait for you at the airport.please let me know."

41) The details of when Marivien started using Mayen's account are fuzzy - which might be connected to using the Yahoo Messenger to detect my movements before the first phone call.


[I collect the cash from the bank, change them into traveller's cheques - prepare to fly - but eventually common sense prevails as all of the above events come into focus.]


42) Another avalanche of attempted calls and SMS messages - as soon as my plane is supposed to land - very premature - they're on the case alright.

43) An email from Sir Francis states "As of now, I understand that Mayen is still stuck in the hospital . . . I hope there is a good explanation for your delay . . ."
Curious to use the phrase "I understand" - it sounds as if he doesn't want to commit himself.
Well - of course there's a very good explanation for my delay - I'm surprised he cannot "understand" that. Curious again that it was CC'd to Mayen & Marivien.
Followed by another email "If there is no logical explanation for your delay and unfounded suspicions, then I think you are an animal of the worst kind."
No logical explanation - meaning - what proof have you got?
Unfounded suspicions - meaning - a point blank refusal to even contemplate the word "scam."

44) During subsequent YM chats with Marivien - I ask for the doctors' details, patient number etc. Again insisting that I deal only with the hospital.
I am informed "Mayen dont have money to pay for the hospital bills thats why she cant go out of the hospital."
Despite the fact that earlier in an SMS Mayen says "timy sir f wants 2 knw, coz if u cnt come he wil deal d bil first.coz he wil setle h!s budget also.pls tel me..or tel sir f as son as posible"

I am given all sorts of excuses for why the hospital are not contacting me - some by Mayen in email - but none of them even hinting at the patient confidentiality issue.

Besides which - it is the Hospital's duty to inform the patient of their "Rights Of Waiver" - with regard to a solution for any confidentiality impasse.

From Marivien -

"i ask here before to tell the hospital to send all the invoice of the bills she had a copy of this
i will print all of your offline messages & emails then give to mayen
il give it to maye tomorrow because theres a typhoo here i cant go there coz of flood"

"She txt me right now that the admin of the hospital half day today because of super typhoon.so please call"

"Mayen is waiting for your call please call here i cant visit here now to the hospital coz of super typhoon"

[We found no trace of a super typhoon when checking the weather reports online.]

Tim: I repeat - the hospital must directly communicate with me vis email - with all the details that I have requested.
vhienne: yap.i ask that already to mayen before.I have work thats why i cant talkd to her doctor i visit her after office and the the doctor is already out

okey.mayen said that mybe the hospital email by tuesday cos saturday & sunday dont have admin office then monday its a holiday her in philippines

[When in fact it was the Tuesday 21st which was the holiday - Ninoy Aquino Day.]

From Sir Francis -

"Anyway, the first thing I want to do is to advise you that the Philippines is a
third world country so don't expect things to be done here as efficiently as they are done in the UK. As per the requests you have enumerated, I have dispatched Vien again to the
hospital for the nth time to get your requests no. 1 to 3. I had similar requests since last weekend but up to now it seems to have fallen in deaf ears of the hospital staff"

From Mayen in an email -

"All i can say is that i have to wait for office days coz the admin of the
hospital is off during saturdays and sundays and this coming monday i doubt if they have o office because its holiday. I tried my best to talked to them but i do nothing."

And in a chat - "i was angry with the hospital because poor accomodations really very poor and its expensive . . .
when i told them.. they told me they dont have the access of the internet it will be in the directors office"

Still no mention of the confidentiality issue.

45) There are discrepancies in the dates of Mayen's visiting relatives at "hospital."

46) Marivien starts to say "Phone Mayen at the hopsital or on her cellphone" now instead of just "phone Mayen on her cellphone."
Perhaps they are starting to panic.

47) Extremely emotionally mainipulative emails from Mayen until I start to send around my "dossier email" - which Sir Francis must have been informed of by his "close business associate." The associate replies - and strangely, one of her replies has the same IP address as Sir Francis has been using - whereas her other replies are from a different IP block altogether.

48) I am now sent by Sir Francis some of the details I requested, although the patient's number and a doctor's licence number are different in information I receive later from the hospital. The email address for one of the doctors does not match the address published on the hospital site. I am recommended to contact the other doctor (Dra. Leonardo) - as she was "the main cooperator to your requirements" - so, being perverse - I decide to try the other Dr. first - although I also wrote to Dra. Leonardo twice with no reply at all - and no bounce back as undelivered - after all, she wouldn't get her own email address wrong, would she. I also wrote to another random female doctor whose email address was posted on the hospital website asking her to forward the same email to Dra. Leonardo. She did not reply either.
However the first Dr - "Dr Dizon" - did reply - but did not answer many of the questions put to him, answered in a pointedly unincriminating way and was using an anonymous IP address. It was altogether very scruffy, brief and elusive. An email like this can be produced by anyone with medical knowledge or who can find their way around the Internet.
It has been pointed out to me that no professional Doctor would even dare to reply with such information as he did - he would simply ask me to refer to my lawyer - especially as he had been informed by me of the suspicious circumstances, and that the whole situation was under investigation. Unless he was in collusion - unless he wasn't a Doctor at all - the power of words again, of information - it was just an email address I was given by Sir Francis - how do I know who answered my email?
I propose that I was given "fake" email addresses - set up for this purpose - the doctors themselves may be completely innocent - ignorant of their names being used.

49) By now I had also written to Tony Montinola - the owner of Tierra Maria Estates - outlining my suspicions and asking for an explanation - and have never received a reply from him either.
I had also written to a named person at a government health department and a couple of real estate licencing boards - no reply from anyone.

50) The next thing I am sent is the Four Feathers letter - still highly emotive - almost emotional blackmail level - but also contains the information that Mayen is already "out of hospital" - having "arranged for her family to pay the account."

51) I receive a JPG of a bill from the hospital.
It appears to be the genuine article - but if there was no operation - it is a fake - produced using the hospital sytem.
There are strange, unexplainable alterations to some of the amounts for Professional Fees from the first set of figures sent.
The bill was prepared by only one person.
Discharge date states 13th August, & the "Run Time" (the time & date that this bill was prepared and printed out) is Tuesday 21st August 2007. A day when a lot of the staff would be on holiday.
Why do I receive this at all, when the account has already been settled?

52) When I email the hospital asking if the account has already been paid they reply that it hasn't - but their reply proves that the email system is accessible to the accounts department.

53) It is unusual practice not to remove a Fallopian tube after it has ruptured.

54) The timing of the Ampullary Section Ectopic Pregnancy rupture is very early.

55) Mayen reveals a discrepancy in the dates surrounding the earlier "false alarm" regarding the "pregnancy."

56) Mayen does not answer my question during a chat session - "How long is the scar?"

57) Mayen told me while "in hospital" that - "I have here all the receipts and invoices they are all numbered and legitimate. I will send it to you through DHL or fast pak."
Where are they now then? In all the time since August 2007 - with Mayen insisting that it was all true - insisting that she still loved me - knowing full well that all I required was some proof - that is decidedly odd.
Since then I have been informed (January 2008) that photographs were taken while Mayen was still "in hospital" - a photograph of "the bandage" - taken as some sort of proof? Well then - why did they not get mentioned until January 2008?
If Marivien had a Xerox of the bill in her hand on Monday 13th August - why was that not scanned and sent to me at the earliest possible opportunity?

58) Now the excuse starts to appear that the reason why the hospital didn't contact me directly was because of Patient Confidentiality - despite the Dra. already having breached that, despite the nurse who made enquiries presumably breached that, despite the fact that it is surely at the patient's discretion, despite the fact that all Mayen's relatives, colleagues, Mayen herself and Sir Francis - in that urgent situation, could not get the hospital to send me even an email to explain - perhaps why they could not deal with me directly.

What happened to the hospital's duty to inform the patient of their "Rights Of Waiver?"

59) Why does Mayen return to the scene - after all that has happened?
Is it because of the threat of my blog going public?
Is it because of the "bogus" money that she believes is waiting for her at Western Union - if she can only get the transaction number from me?
Why do we suddenly start using webcams for the very first time ever, immediately after the subject of the bogus money is brought into the conversation?

60) Why do I have to prompt her to reveal the scar?

61) Why can it not be done there and then?
Why the dubious excuse about the friends computer?
Why does she not stand still during the revelation of the scar?
Why is it so obviously a fake, with the markings of her knicker elastic?
Why does it smudge when she touches it?

62) Why has she been lying about being in Surigao?

63) Did Sir Francis really give her the sack, after trying to get a libel case started on her behalf, after all his "kindness" in the "hospital"?

64) Why am I forbidden to communicate with her old gang? Did she really change the SIM card in her phone to prevent Sir Francis from ringing her?

65) Why does she lie about her mother having a stroke?

66) Why does she lie about being in Sogod?

67) Why is my blog hacked and deleted an hour after going public?

68) Why can nobody in the Philippines understand why I was suspicious?

I have not got a crystal ball - in which to see the truth of events - all I have ever received was information.
However - the crystal seed of doubt - which formed originally by simply seeing that here was a golden opportunity for a scam - having all the classic ingredients - never received the assurance needed to stop it growing.
Quite the contrary - in the light of that awareness - the information, which was all I had to make judgements from, to try & assess the truth of the situation - revealed a great deal more.
Yes - it is very much a psychological, behavioural profile - and unfortunately, but typically in this type of scenario - there is little else to go on.
However - considering that the information itself has been uniformly ambiguous - neither weighted one way or the other because it could be deliberately designed to deceive - in a sense the information can be disregarded, or at least regarded as less important than the accompanying psychological, behavioural information - which is far less easily disguised - emerging spontaneously from the situation as it was perceived by themselves.
Information provided as a direct response to my enquiries, requests or actions - is far less significant than voluntary information - as it could be specifically tailored to order.

You will also see revealed a profile of my own psychological, behavioural state - and a lot of my conclusions are biased by a growing conviction that my suspicions were true.
So this is not a case of examining the facts - because nobody is in a position to establish where the facts or where the fantasies lie.
But it is a case of examining psychological perceptions - which themselves may or may not be biased by intent, or by love, or by a respect for the truth.
I am familiar with only one party involved in this episode - myself - my assured opinions come from that person, whose behaviour and psyche I am intimate with - who constantly self-checks the honesty and sincerity of his thoughts and words.
How intimate is anybody else likely to be with the people involved?

However - you are free to assess for yourself the key areas - whether or not you think that the behaviour I was witnessing was appropriate to a girl who professed her love for me, insisted that she wanted the relationship to continue - knowing full well that my suspicions needed resolving before that could happen.
You are free to assess how much the relationship was about financial gain and how much was about love.
You are free to assess whether or not there was any behaviour, designed to ensure circumstances whereby a pregnancy could be construed.
You are free to assess how many of the procrastinations, delays, excuses, examples of unresponsiveness etc. were due to normal circumstances, taking into account the specifics of the situation as reported.
You are free to assess why responses did occur when they did, taking into account the specifics of the situation regarding timing.
You are free to assess the validity of those responses - against the ambiguity of aims and purpose.
You are free to assess how innocence has been demonstrated and to decide whether or not this demonstration has occurred as a continued part of a deception or because innocence is genuine.
You are free to assess - whether fact or fiction, the publicising of this so strenuously, upon the medium of its enactment, may or may not advance the cause of awareness - and may or may not ultimately advantage the cause of those innocently seeking a genuine, loving relationship online.
But you are only free to assess - if your mind is free.

Some people, however, are so blinded by their pretence at machismo heroism, or their perfunctory patriotism that they are rendered incapable of using their perception or their intellect any further to discover an obvious truth.



Either that or this partiality indicates that their motives are far more sinister.
Which is it?

* The burden of proof is on the shoulders of the people who came up with the request for money. To prove that in the “transaction” the goods were
genuine.

* It is impossible to decode words to find the truth for the words remain the same in either case - truth or falsehood - the story that I was expected to believe would appear identical.

* Truth has a ring to it - detected from information other than presented by just the words. The alert is sounded by some other sense, instinct or gut feeling, when behaviour conflicts with information.
How can anyone else be expected to hear that ring, long since decayed, when they were not involved at the time?
The story is intended to provide those same alerts, but can only achieve that through the medium of words - hence the detailed analysis.

* Seeing as the sole means of communication being used throughout these events has been “words” and “information” - any form of hard evidence is incredibly unlikely - unless the people writing or speaking those words, despatching that information, were very, very foolish. Anyone insisting vehemently that an absence of hard evidence proves innocence is either lacking the intellect to understand subtle implications, or is deliberately blowing a smoke screen to conceal something else.

* On occasions like these, soft or psychological evidence is all that there is - deduced from behavioural responses, timing etc.

* As time has provided, since the very first ambiguous presentation, it has been possible to identify a pattern, accumulation of this psychological evidence indicates a trend that points in one direction only, culminating in the revelation of a fake scar on video.

* Immediate denial and an obstinate refusal to believe that such a video exists, again demonstrates either wishful thinking or a determined attempt to pervert the course of truth.

* It is neither required nor expected that such evidence be released for public consumption for reasons stated below.

1) The video is extremely intimate in nature.
2) Releasing the video would allow its copying, altering, it would assist in the production of photographs which could further assist the spread of propaganda.
3) Keeping it private balances the vacuum of information that is assisting those trying to deceive.
4) Its secrecy provides a dividing line - either side of which stand the honest or the dishonest, the realists or the wishful thinkers.
5) By appearing to offer a choice to believe the evidence portrayed on it, or not - it is the polarising element for the whole story. It will remain with a soft presence - being purely psychological in effect - as long as this entire drama is being acted out on that stage, on those terms.


So - spare me your dreams of the ideal Filipina - your wishful thinking - spare me your outrageous contempt.
Show me instead a true concern - a concern for the truth - elevate your dream country into reality.

READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE - HOSPITAL SCAMS - PHILIPPINES

YOU ARE ALL VICTIMS . . .